Can you all help keep me honest?

There are less than two months til Halloween, and I’m pretty behind on costuming. Last year I was a cyberpunk courier, and this year I’m planning to be a dryad. Last year’s costume was finished in a couple of hellish late nights, and I’d really like to avoid that fate this year. Except I made a map using Freemind of everything I need to do and think about, and the results were sobering.

So, would you all mind if I did a costuming progress post every Monday so you can shame me if I’m falling behind? I’ll post progress pics and tell you what I plan to do this week, and then you’ll see how well I do when Monday rolls around.

This past week, I finally drafted my corset pattern (or, at least, it’s first iteration). I used Cathy Hay’s guide to drafting a custom corset which is excellent and requires 14 separate measurements (thank goodness for my housemate and for Hulu).

Look, it’s me!

This coming week, I’ll transfer the pattern to muslin and cut it out. My stretch goal is sewing all the pieces together so I know what I need to tweak, but I’m travelling this weekend, so that may not be possible. You’ll find out how I did on Monday!

Leah Anthony Libresco graduated from Yale in 2011. She works as a statistician for a school in Washington D.C. by day, and by night writes for Patheos about theology, philosophy, and math at www.patheos.com/blogs/unequallyyoked. She was received into the Catholic Church in November 2012."

http://emilyhasbooks.com Emily

Very cool, Leah! Have you drawn a rough sketch? Also, I suggest adding an estimated time to each line & seeing where best to apply yourself.

Skittle

Ooo, or make a Gantt chart. How often do you get to make a Gantt chart for a project? Although maybe you don’t enjoy them as much as me.

leahlibresco

I only found this software at LessWrong minicamp, so this is the first one I’ve done.

http://delphipsmith.livejournal.com Delphi Psmith

Ooo, or make a Gantt chart.

Wow. You are totally a geek LOL!

https://foothills.wjduquette.com/blog Will Duquette

I love FreeMind; but you might also try FreePlane. It’s a related tool that uses the same formats; however, it updates more often and has a nicer looking UI. I gather the development teams overlap.

deiseach

As a non-sewing person, that looks daunting. Are you going to make the leaves yourself, or would it not do to just find real leaves off trees and just pin them on? Yes, I’m that ignorant.

Good luck with the project, anyway!

leahlibresco

I’m not going to have any really literal looking leaves at all. I’m doing more of a trunk/roots look for the dress and headpiece, so I’ve got a lot of different brown fabrics and a few greens and reds.

http://thinkinggrounds.blogspot.com Christian H

That schematization looks horrifying. BUT, as a subset for my love of mythological beings, my love for dryads is especially strong. Something about plant-human hybrids that aren’t a horror story? Mortal connections with trees? General woodsiness? So my expectations are really high now (for completion more than a specific portrayal). Will that help motivate you?

http://geeklady.wordpress.com GeekLady

Oh this is exciting! I didn’t know you were a sewing geek! I’m going to have to try that custom corset pattern – I’ve been dying to do Girl Genius one year. My usual costume efforts are on GeekBaby, and he can’t decide what he wants to be this year. He’s been a Viking, Link (Ocarina of Time, young Link), a tiny highlander (we were all sick that year and kilts are easy), and last year he was Feathers McGraw, from The Wrong Trousers. This year he’s wiggling around between Aang, Superman, a pirate, and the Tenth Doctor.

leahlibresco

I vote for the last, because babies in natty jackets are cool.

http://geeklady.wordpress.com GeekLady

Yeah, he was going to be the Tenth Doctor last year… but he all of a sudden whipped out “I want to be the evil penguin from Wallace and Gromit” and when your three year old says something that awesome, you indulge him. But at four he has his own ideas and the Tenth Doctor will take some convincing, which rather spoils some of the fun.